French President Jacques Chirac has indicated that the nation's "colonial history" law will be overhauled. It had mandated that the nation's teachers emphasize the positive results of colonialism and de-emphasize the downsides of French occupation of former colonies in Africa, the Western Hemisphere and Asia. Chirac said the law was "divisive" and "needed to be revised" ("Le texte actuel divise les Français. Il doit donc être réécrit"). The BBC and Le Monde (in French) have more.

Here is the original text of Article 4 of the law (in French), passed February 23, 2005 which is particularly contentious.